Forgive me for Whatever I Do
by Interspark
Summary: Marceline's ex-boyfriend Ash returns to the Candy Kingdom with delusions of winning back the Vampire Queen. And discovering that Marceline is dating Princess Bubblegum isn't about to put him off...
1. Chapter 1

Forgive me for Whatever I Do

It was a dark, cold night in the Candy Kingdom's graveyard. Princess Bubblegum and Marceline, the Vampire Queen, sat against one of the crypts under a large, pink blanket, staring up at the stars and sharing stories.

"So I'm standing there, with this dude's head _in my hands_, and he _still_ says he's gonna kick my butt!" Marceline finished, with a broad grin on her face.

Bubblegum laughed. "Oh Marceline. That's why I love you, but it's also why we stopped inviting you to the Royal Courts."

"Well it's not like I'd pull this junk there!" Marceline said defensively.

"You punched the Duke of Nuts in the face right while he was talking!" Bubblegum reminded her with a smirk.

"He insulted you!"

Bubblegum sighed. She wrapped her arms around Marceline and rested her head on her shoulder as she continued talking.

In the distance, a man lurked behind a bush. He had pale, grey skin, pointed ears and three wisps of white hair, hanging over his face and his shoulders. Marceline's ex-boyfriend, Ash fumed silently. He had conjured a circle of light in front of him, through which he could see and hear the two girls as if they were right next to him.

"Who are you kidding, babe?" Ash hissed under his breath. "You know you need me!"

A few minutes later, Bubblegum's eyelids began to droop. She slowly lay down on Marceline's lap and fell asleep. Marceline smiled. She pulled the blanket off herself and wrapped it around the princess, and began stroking her soft, pink hair.

On the other side of his magic window, Ash looked ready to explode. He clutched his flower-shaped wand so hard, he snapped it in half. He repaired it with a wiggle of his fingers, without taking his eyes of Marceline.

Eventually, Marceline stood up, carefully picking Bubblegum up as she did, taking care not to wake her, and flew into the air and towards the Candy Kingdom.

"Just you wait, Marceline… I'll make you see…" Ash scowled, as Marceline flew out of sight.

* * *

In the towering mountain at the heart of the Ice Kingdom, the Ice King sat across his table from Gunter. A chess set made of ice sat between them. With sweat pouring down his brow, the Ice King slowly moved his queen, which was shaped like Princess Bubblegum. As soon as he withdrew his hand, Gunter quacked triumphantly. He hopped around the board, and moved his Finn-shaped bishop with his beak.

The Ice King stared at the board in disbelief, and then looked at Gunter. After a shifty glance left and right, he smiled and patted Gunter on the head.

"Silly penguin!" He said, loudly. "That piece can't move like that! Let me just…"

He reached out for Gunter's bishop, but Gunter quacked and pecked his hand angrily, forcing the Ice King to withdraw.

"Alright fine! You win!" The Ice King admitted, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms.

Gunter quacked happily. He hopped off the table and waddled away, leaving the Ice King to sulk.

A few minutes later, there was a hesitant knock on the house's empty doorway and Ash walked in. The Ice King looked over and his eyes lit up.

"Hey! It's my pal Ash!" He declared, standing up. "You here for game night? My BFs forgot again, boy are they gonna feel silly…" He said, walking over to one of his cupboards.

Ash seemed taken aback. He had only met the Ice King once, and didn't even know his name. "What? Dude, no. I need to talk to you about something."

"You sure? I got Ice Kingdom Monopoly!" The Ice King said, holding up a cardboard box, with a grinning picture of himself on the front. "Oh, but I got dibs on the racecar…"

Ash strode forwards angrily and smacked the box out of the Ice King's hands. "Dude! Focus!"

"Ok, fine. You can be the racecar! Geez!"

Ash seized the front of the Ice King's gown. "You need to get control of your woman!" He cried, getting straight to the point.

"Say what…?" The Ice King asked, with a blank expression.

"When we met in Wizard City, _that one time_…" Ash reminded him, letting go of his gown, "…You said that Bubblegum was yours. But she's been messing around with my girl, Marceline!"

"Marceline?" Asked the Ice King, confused. "That's my home girl! She knows I got dibs on the Princess!"

"Really?" Ash said.

He pointed his wand at his own head and drew out a bubble, containing his memory of Bubblegum and Marceline in the graveyard.

"WHAAAAT?" The Ice King roared, as he watched Marceline stroke the sleeping Princess' hair. He pushed up his sleeves and marched towards the door. "I'll give that girl a piece of my mind…" He muttered.

Ash grabbed the Ice King's wrist and pulled him back.

"Marceline? No way, dude! I came here because I need you to go deal with the Princess! I'll talk to Marceline! You need to go tell Bubblegum to start seeing you instead of her!"

"Bro, I've been barkin' up that tree for years…" The Ice King said, sadly.

Ash rolled his eyes as he suddenly realized what relationship the Ice King had with Princess Bubblegum. "Ok fine, you talk to Marceline and get her to keep away from the Princess, but for GLOB'S sake, don't tell her you saw me, ok?"

"Right!" The Ice King said, clenching his fist in determination.

The two wizards left the house, took to the air, and flew off in different directions.


	2. Chapter 2

Marceline floated on her back above the sofa in her house. She was holding her red axe bass and had spent the last couple of hours trying out new ideas for songs.

Suddenly, she stopped playing and turned her head around attentively. She flared her nostrils and a moment later, groaned. She floated over to her door and opened it just in time to see the Ice King swoop into her cave.

"Hey! What gives, Marceline?" The Ice King demanded, as soon as he was within earshot. "What's up with you hanging out with my GF?"

Marceline stared at him. "What? You've got a… Wait, you mean Bonnibel!? She's _my_ girlfriend, Simon." She sighed.

"Pfft." The Ice King snorted. "Bubblegum's been dropping me signals for years now, she just needs you to stop messing up her head, girl!"

"Get lost, Simon!" Marceline warned, with a threatening edge to her voice.

She turned around to head back into her house.

"Well? Are you gonna stop messing around with my GF?" The Ice King called after her insistently.

Marceline froze in her tracks. Her eyes began to glisten with tears, but slowly, her misery was replaced with rage. With a furious cry, she turned around and punched the Ice King with her free hand. He flew backwards and his crown rolled off his head. As he crawled towards it, it floated off the ground and flew into Marceline's hand.

"It's been a _long_ time since I last tried to do this…" She said, with a mad grin.

The Ice King stood up and ran towards her, but before he reached her, Marceline forcefully hurled the crown to her feet, seized her axe with both hands and struck the crown with it over an over again. Each strike was accompanied by a loud clang and flash of bright white sparks.

After almost five minutes of furious violence, Marceline collapsed to her knees and hyperventilated. Tears ran down her face and dripped onto the floor. The crown was deeply imbedded in the stone floor, but neither it, nor the axe had so much as a single scratch or dent on it.

The Ice King cautiously shuffled over to her. As he reached for the crown, Marceline looked up at him with fire in her eyes. Without even changing form, Marceline stood up, grabbed a handful of the Ice King's gown and lifted him off the floor with one hand.

"You would have encouraged me!" Marceline sobbed. "Helped me get ready for dates and told me what not to wear!"

"Geez Marceline! You're crazy!" The Ice King declared. "That dingus doesn't know what he's getting himself into!"

Marceline lowered the Ice King slightly. She furrowed her brow as she contemplated whom the Ice King could be talking about. Suddenly, her eyes widened.

"Ash? _He_ set you up to this!? Why didn't he just come himself…?" She wondered aloud. A moment later, she dropped the Ice King to the ground. "Bonnibel!"

Marceline flew into her house. While she was gone, the Ice King walked over to his crown and began heaving on it, trying to pry it from the ground, to no avail. Seconds later, Marceline flew back out of her house, wearing a sunhat and long gloves.

Without so much as a word to the Ice King, she picked up her axe, and shot out into the sunlight.

* * *

Half an hour earlier, Ash skulked around the side of the tower at the centre of the Candy Kingdom. He crawled around the outside, like a spider, peeking into windows, searching for the Princess. The sound of creaking metal and grinding joints made Ash spin around, only to come face-to-face with one of the colossal Gumball Guardians.

"Halt!" It bellowed. "State your business, intruder to the royal castle!"

Ash thought fast. "Uuuuum, I'm not an intruder!" He insisted. He flicked his wand and, with a sparkle of rainbow-coloured light, turned into Princess Bubblegum. "I'm the Princess!" He finished, in the Princess' smooth, yet bossy voice.

The Gumball Guardian stared at him for a couple of seconds. "Error! Princess Bubblegum cannot walk on walls!" It stated.

Ash calmly floated to the nearest windowsill and rested his feet on it.

The Gumball Guardian twitched its head. "Identification complete. Have a nice day, Princess."

Ash stared at the Gumball Guardian in disbelief as it returned to the outskirts of the city and continued blowing enormous bubbles, along with the others. He really hadn't expected that to work.

Inside the castle, Bubblegum walked through one of the outer corridors in her lab coat and goggles, carefully making notes on a clipboard and humming one of Marceline's songs.

Suddenly, a window burst open and Marceline flew in, wearing a hoodie that kept the sun off her. She landed, closed the window and drew the curtain.

"Hey Marceline." Bubblegum smiled, as she lowered her hood.

The Princess walked over to hug her, but then stopped and frowned. She sighed and went back to walking down the corridor and humming.

"Bonnibel…?" Marceline called after her, confused.

"That's 'Princess Bubblegum' to you." Bubblegum said, without turning around. "Only Marceline gets to use my first name."

Marceline floated after her, her mouth hanging open in shock. A moment before she was about to talk again, Bubblegum continued.

"You're standing up straight, your expression is _all_ wrong, and you're wearing _perfume_."

"It's called aftershave!" Marceline snapped.

"Sorry dude, but you'd be more convincing if, instead of a disguise, you just had a sign around your neck which said 'Marceline'." Bubblegum said, patronisingly.

She walked through a door into her lab, and the fake Marceline floated in after her.

"Ok fine. You got me. I'm Marceline's sister." She said.

"Marceline doesn't have a sister…" Bubblegum said, absent-mindedly, while she rooted through a drawer in one of the lab's cupboards.

"I'm Marceline from the future…?" The impostor tried, feebly.

Bubblegum's face lit up as she found what she was looking for. She produced a large flashlight from the drawer and shone it at the fake Marceline, revealing Ash's true features. Bubblegum turned the flashlight off and Ash stayed as he was.

"Ah man…" Ash moaned, as he realised what the flashlight had done.

"What do you want?" Bubblegum asked. "I'm kinda busy."

"I want you to leave my woman alone!" Ash snapped.

"Who now?"

"Marceline!"

Bubblegum stared for a while, until it dawned on her. "Oooh, you must be Ash." She said sadly.

"You've heard of me?" He said, sounding more smug that surprised.

Bubblegum drew a deep breath. "BANANA GAURDS!" She screamed, answering Ash's question.

Startled, Ash jumped back into the corridor and waved his wand, and the doorway to the lab slowly faded away, leaving a blank stretch of wall. Bubblegum ran over and punched at the wall, but it was solid.

"Princess Bubblegum!" Came the muffled voice of one of the banana guards, from the other side of the wall. "Is everything ok?"

Before Bubblegum could reply, she heard her own voice say, "Everything's fine! False alarm!"

"Oh… ok, take care!" Came the banana guard's reply, followed by the sound of their siren impersonation as they marched away.

"Wait! Come back!" Bubblegum cried. "That's not me!"

Bubblegum jumped back as she saw her own head phase through the wall.

"Oh, they can't hear you, you're gonna be in here for a while. Easily long enough for me to go break up with my girlfriend so she can get back to her awesome boyfriend, Ash!"

Bubblegum screamed and leapt at Ash, but he phased back and left her scratching at the wall. She stepped back and looked around the room. How stupid _was_ Ash? Of all the rooms in the royal palace, he thought being sealed in her lab meant she was _trapped_? With the equipment she had, she could escape the room in two seconds, but she needed to be ready to help Marceline, once she saw through Ash's laughably transparent disguise. Marceline hadn't told her much about Ash's powers, just that he was a real jerk, and if she hadn't believed her before…

Bubblegum picked up a backpack from the floor and began filling it up with equipment.


	3. Chapter 3

Marceline shot along the ground, flying as fast as she could, towards the Candy Kingdom. Marceline couldn't believe Ash was back and was messing with her again. Him messing with _her_ she had always tolerated, but this time he had gone too far. If he lay so much as a finger on her…

As Marceline approached the Candy Kingdom, she saw a pink figure running towards her. Bubblegum raised her arms for a hug as Marceline approached.

"Marce…" Bubblegum began, but before she could finish, she was interrupted by Marceline's fist.

Marceline punched Ash so hard, he dropped his disguise. She transformed as much as she could without merging with her clothes and slammed an enormous hand down on Ash's torso and neck, preventing him from getting up.

"H…how?" Ash choked.

"Bonnie smells like sugar. You reek of stale man perfume! Now WHERE IS SHE!?" Marceline roared.

Ash disappeared and reappeared, standing up, in front of Marceline.

"She's safe, babe. And she'll stay safe, as long as you agree to be my girlfriend again."

Marceline trembled with frustration and rage.

"Ash! I don't like men, and I HATE you! You will never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER have a shot with me! Bonnibel and I are in LOVE, and every time you try to undermine that, you just make me want to kill you more!. You know, it's only because of her that I haven't killed you yet!"

Marceline stared at Ash. Slowly, it seemed as if her words sank in. He sighed and lowered his head. Marceline lowered her guard, but this turned out to be a bad idea.

"_Sunicus Blasticus_!" Ash cried.

White balls al light erupted from Ash's wand. Caught off guard, Marceline was hit square in the chest by several of them. She screamed and writhed as smoke poured out from under her shirt.

"If I can't have you, then no one can!" Ash cried. A wooden stake materialised in his hand.

"Ash, you're crazy!" Marceline shouted back angrily, once the smoke subsided.

Ash continued his bombardment, but now, Marceline was ready for him. She darted left and right, up and down, as the white balls sailed past her or grazed her arms or sides, occasionally getting enough of an opening to punch him or swing at him with her axe.

In the distance, Princess Bubblegum crouched low amongst the feathers of a huge, brown bird, swooping towards the two of them.

Seeing the fight ensuing, Bubblegum cried, "Morrow! Step on it!"

As the bird accelerated, she held up the torch she had used in her lab, slid out the clear lens and replaced it with a black filter from her pocket. Morrow swept along the grass alongside Marceline and Ash, and Bubblegum nimbly leapt off his back, leaving him to return to the skies.

"Marceline!" She cried.

As the two of them turned to look at Bubblegum, she aimed the flashlight at them and turned it on. It spread a wide, dark shadow upon the two immortals, in a similar way to how a regular flashlight might shine light.

Marceline grinned. Ash flicked his wand again, but the concentrated balls of sunlight had become feeble, grey wisps in Bubblegum's artificial shadow. Marceline took off her hat and charged at him, fangs first. Ash seemed panicked at first, but a second before Marceline reached him, he smiled. He vanished and, a split second later, reappeared in the same place, but with Marceline having charged past him. Before she could turn around, he plunged his stake through her back and into her heart.

Bubblegum's heart was clutched by ice. Marceline seemed to fall to her knees in slow motion. Her skin began to boil and she seemed to be melting.

"NOOOOOO!" Bubblegum shrieked.

She reached into her pocket with her free hand, produced a plastic gun and fired. Ash vanished, but he hadn't been her target. Two metal prongs on a thin cable sailed through the air and jabbed into Marceline's back, next to the stake.

"I'm so sorry sweetie!" Bubblegum said sympathetically.

She turned up a dial on the gun with her thumb. Marceline began to scream, but her body slowly returned to normal.

Ash reappeared next to Bubblegum.

"What do you think you're doing?" He asked snidely.

"Saving her life!" Bubblegum snarled.

Ash pointed his wand at her. "We'll see about that."

Bubblegum squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't drop either of the objects in her hands _or_ move, if Marceline was to have even a chance of recovering.

She waited… Marceline's screams continued, but the spell never came. Suddenly, Bubblegum shivered with cold. She opened her eyes to see an ice statue standing where Ash had been, covered in icicles and with mist seeping from it. A flower wand made of ice was pointing right at her face.

The Ice King floated down next to him, his pristine crown back on his head.

"Ash, you went too far!" He scalded. "You are BANNED from my future game nights! Messing with my favourite gals like that…"

Bubblegum stood up and thrust the flashlight into the Ice King's hands.

"Ice King! Keep that trained on Marceline!" She ordered.

She ran over to her, and carefully removed the stake from her back.

"You're gonna be fine, Marceline." Bubblegum said, her voice shaking slightly. "I just need to give your body enough power to regenerate your heart."

Wincing on Marceline's behalf, Bubblegum turned the dial on the gun all the way round. Marceline chomped down on her lower lip. She was in an impossible amount of pain, but even stronger was her desire not to frighten Bonnibel any more than she already had.

Bubblegum looked at a display on the gun in dismay as various flashing shapes moved around seemingly at random.

"No no no no!" She cried. "It's not enough!"

"So what's going on?" The Ice King asked.

Bubblegum almost looked up from what she was doing in shock. Along with the usual boredom and absent-mindedness the Ice King usually displayed when asking questions like that, he almost sounded concerned.

"I need more power to heal her!" Bubblegum said.

She quickly took off her backpack and turned it upside down, tipping various magical stones, amulets and devices onto the floor. Then she opened a compartment on the bottom of the gun and pulled out a suction cup on another cable. She stuck it to each item, one after the other, turning each one grey and sometimes even causing them to shrivel into a crumpled ball.

After sucking the power from each item, Bubblegum looked more and more worried. Once the last one was dry, tears swelled up in her eyes.

"It's not enough!" She cried.

She knelt down next to Marceline. She wanted nothing more than to hold her shoulder, kiss her, comfort her in some way, but she knew that the power coursing through Marceline would kill her in an instant, and removing the prongs would do the same to Marceline. She put her hands up to her eyes and wept. Marceline looked up at her helplessly, it was still all she could do to not continue screaming.

The Ice King watched the two of them silently, still pointing the shadow-projecting flashlight at them. A range of emotions boiled inside of him, some of which he hadn't felt for centuries, others he barely recognized. Suddenly, resolve burned in his otherwise blank, white eyes.

A thin pillar of ice reached up from the ground and held the flashlight in place. Without a word, he marched over to Princess Bubblegum's gun, removed his crown and firmly attached the suction cup to it.

The second the suction cup touched the crown, the cables, the gun and Marceline lit up like Christmas lights. Marceline screamed again as the wound in her back slowly healed up. Bubblegum looked between Marceline and the Ice King in disbelief, and then in panic, as she realised what was about to happen.

The gun exploded violently. Smoke erupted across the grass.

"Mar… Marceline?" Bubblegum coughed, blinking smoke out of her eyes.

Suddenly, Marceline sat bolt upright. She put her hands on both sides of the Princess' head and kissed her deeply.

"Bonnibel, I love you." She sighed, gently rubbing her forehead against hers. "Ow… Ow!"

As the smoke cleared, the two of them realized that the flashlight had been knocked over. Marceline quickly stood up and put her hat back on. As she did, she noticed the Ice King, brushing himself down. She stepped over and hugged him, taking him by surprise.

"Simon, I can't believe you risked your crown for me like that!" She sighed.

The Ice King held up his crown. It had paled slightly, and the points had started to melt, but before their eyes, it restored itself in mere seconds.

"Well sure Marceline!" The Ice King said, repositioning the crown. "What am I supposed to do? Write songs for the princesses myself?"

Marceline smiled slightly, she turned to Bubblegum.

"Well come on, Princess. Let's go home." She crouched down, prompting Bubblegum to jump on her back.

"Wait!" The Ice King said. "You know it's still Game Night. You guys wanna come hang out in the Ice Kingdom? Finn and Jake are probably waiting."

Marceline turned to face Bubblegum and cringed jokingly. Bubblegum shrugged.

"Sure thing, man." Marceline said. "But if we're playing Monopoly, I'm the racecar."

"Aww…"

The three of them flew into the air, leaving a frozen Ash, to stare helplessly after them.


End file.
